Finding Cousins in the Family Tree

Finding Missing People in your Family Tree

Prepared and presented by

Becky Jamison, Family History

Consultant, Canon City 2nd Ward

Colorado Springs Stake Discovery Day

11 April 2015

Elder Quentin L. Cook encourages us this year to engage in 3 steps of activity in our Family History.

Why conduct Descendancy Research?

To find new information that helps us extend our ancestral lines back in time.

Why Conduct Descendancy Research?

To find relatives who are also researching our family.

By finding my grandmother’s sister, I also found her granddaughter, my 2nd

cousin. She set up this Facebook group for our common ancestors where other cousins share photos and data.


To find relatives who might share heirlooms, photos, stories, and documents.

My second cousin also shared these family items with me.


To provide ordinances for all members of families (not just for those in our direct line)


Heirlooms and artifacts do survive. Collaborating with family members (cousins) may turn up treasures.

Where should I start?

Choose an ancestor who lived since the mid to late 1800’s.

• Immigrant ancestor• Famous ancestor• Military ancestor• Questionable ancestor• End of line individual

George Koleber, b. 1875Kratzke, Russia

Immigrated Ellis Island July 1904

The fan chart available at FamilySearch shows me as the Primary Person and shows any great, great grandparents who have been identified and are listed in the Family Tree.

I select my great, great grandfather Jesse Gordon Flanders, 1813-1871. I can click on his name to make him the Primary Person.

When I click on my great, great grandfather Jesse Gordon Flanders, you can see that a small fan chart icon appears as the name space turns shaded. If I click on that space, I’m taken to this person detail box where I can click on “Tree”.

I can click on the Descendancy icon at the top left of the screen. I also click on the number 4 to show 4 generations.

I click on the word “Show” at right to drop down the menu of choices and explanations of the icons shown.

In reading this descendant list, I discovered an error in Edith’s name. Her birth name was Doran, married name was Daggett. This brought my attention to a correction that I’ve since made.

The dark blue temple icon tells us the Temple Work is “In Progress”. If we click on the word “Expand” we see details of the person’s

temple ordinances. We can click “Collapse” to close the box.

We can click on each of these links that take us to actual records for this person. This one has a (1) Social Security Death Index(2) a Find-A-Grave memorial, with possible photos, obituary, family members, burial location (3) Census listing for 1920 & 1940, which may show family members, occupation, residence in 1935, etc, and (4) a listing in the Public Records Index.

I can click on“Show Details”

When I go to the “Record Hints Details” this is my view. I can review each listing and attach the record as a source if it’s a Match. I can

discard it if it isn’t a Match.

The Orange Temple Icon tells us “Needs More Information”, which in this case warns us that “Possible Duplicates Exist”.

Instructions to resolve duplicates are included in a link.

In this case, with no death date listed for Irma Flanders, I need to try to find a death date.

The Green Temple Icon gives me the opportunity to Request Ordinances.

To do ordinances for a deceased person who was born in the last 110 years, the following requirements must be met.

• The person must have been deceased for at least one year.• You must either be one of the closest living relatives, or you must obtain permission from

one of the closest living relatives. If you are not a spouse, child, parent, or sibling of the deceased, please obtain permission from one of the closest living relatives before doing the ordinances. The closest living relatives are an undivorced spouse (the spouse to whom the individual was married when he or she died), an adult child, a parent, or a brother or sister.

• Verbal approval is acceptable. Family members should work together to determine when the ordinances will be done and who will do them.

The blue box offers “Research

Suggestions” and reminds me to look

for sources and attach them.

By looking at the individuals listed at left, we can see why the Exclamation Mark in the orange box appears! Was Inec Bay a male or a female and was that person born the same year as sister Lucy? We’re even given the points to resolve in the drop down box.

We are so blessed! The developers of FamilySearch’s Family Tree not only give us an easy way to see the children in a family with this Descendancy View, but they show us the glaring errors. Then….they even offer LINKS to records that we can examine to help resolve the problem issues. All on the same page! We can Review and Attach the record right from here.

In this can we see that “Inec Bay” was actually listed as FEMALE Inez E Bay in the 1900 census.

I’d certainly click on “View Image” to see what else I can straighten out.

Here we can see that Charles and Ella Bay had daughters • Abbie, born Aug 1882 • Inez E, born Mar 1884 (or Lucy)• Bertha born Feb 1889 and • son Myron, born June 1894Lots of clean up to do on this family on Family Tree

1920 Census shows Inez E. 1930 Census shows Einez E.

In review……

Why do our General Authorities specify that Indexing is so vital?

Click on Search, then Records, and we can

click on Browse All Published Collections.

Just 2 months ago, 402,388 US Obituaries for people connected to the “American Historical

Society of Germans from Russia” were added to the Indexed records, complete with IMAGES!

My entire paternal ancestral line are Germans from Russia.

If time allows, we’ll go to the Family Tree to see some of the obituaries I found when I chose

that record set to view.

Johann George Koleber, Sr. 6 Dec 1875 – 21 May 1952

Through FamilySearch, our church’s Family History Department asks us to• FIND opportunities to perform the Temple ordinances for all descendants of our

Ancestors• Take the names of those descendants to the Temple, with our own family, if

possible• Teach our family members and others how to do the same.

Another good tool for helping us find cousins is PUZZILLA, a partner with FamilySearch. Found at https://puzzilla.org/

More information is available in our Handouts.

Part of this Powerpoint presentation

was adapted from the class given at

RootsTech 2015 by Peggy Johnson,

Feb 14, 2015, Salt Lake City, UT. The

videos from the classes can be

viewed here: http://rootstech.org/video/4050134760001

Online sites for finding living people.

Here’s how Facebook helps me with research.

I got this message from Terry Batt, a

genealogy friend on Facebook. It

was followed by more complete info

from Brent Mai. I wrote about it on

my blog so others could learn what I

had learned.

More resources on Facebook

This is a group from my husband’s hometown.

Strait Family Group on Facebook, one of my ancestral lines

Washington Co, PA, one of my husband’s ancestral counties

A new group for RootsMagic

Users

Earlier, we said it might be fun, in our descendancy research, to find a “famous” or “questionable” ancestor. Even one like this proves interesting. Here’s another benefit of checking the family or society groups on FACEBOOK.

Charles C. Gregg is a 5th cousin 4 times removed of my husband Larry Jamison. I could add this to the “Memories” on Family Tree.

Thank you!Feel free to contact me at:

[email protected]

Help yourself to the Handoutsand enjoy the rest of your Discovery Day

Becky Jamison

mailto:[email protected]

Finding Cousins in the Family Tree

Presentations & Public Speaking

Transcript of Finding Cousins in the Family Tree